He Fell In Love With His Wife, Edward Payson Roe [children's books read aloud .TXT] 📗

that was in my mind, so help me God!”

 

“But—but HE’S been here,” she faltered; “you don’t realize—”

 

“I don’t believe I do or can, yet, Alida, dear, but that blessed Jane’s spying

trait has served me the best turn in the world. She heard every brave word

you said and I shed tears of joy when she told me; and tears are slow coming

to my eyes. You think I shrink from you, do you?” and he kissed her hands

passionately. “See,” he cried, “I kneel to you in gratitude for all you’ve

been to me and are to me.”

 

“Oh, James! Please rise. It’s too much.”

 

“No, not till you promise to go with me to a minister and hear me promise to

love, cherish—yes, in your case I’ll promise to obey.”

 

She bowed her head upon his shoulder in answer. Springing up, he clasped her

close and kissed away her tears as he exclaimed, “No more business marriage

for me, if you please. There never was a man so in love with his wife.”

 

Suddenly she looked up and said fearfully, “James, he threatened you. He said

you’d never be safe a moment as long as I stayed here.”

 

His answer was a peal of laughter. “I’ve done more than threaten him. I’ve

whipped him within an inch of his life, and it was the thought of you that led

me, in my rage, to spare his life. I’ll tell you all—I’m going to tell you

everything now. How much trouble I might have saved if I had told you my

thoughts! What was there, Alida, in an old fellow like me that led you to

care so?”

 

Looking up shyly, she replied, “I think it was the MAN in you—and—then you

stood up for me so.”

 

“Well, love is blind, I suppose, but it don’t seem to me that mine is. There

never was a man so taken in at his marriage. You were so different from what

I expected that I began loving you before I knew it, but I thought you were

good to me just as you were to Jane—from a sense of duty—and that you

couldn’t abide me personally. So I tried to keep out of your way. And,

Alida, dear, I thought at first that I was taken by your good traits and your

education and all that, but I found out at last that I had fallen in love with

YOU. Now you know all. You feel better now, don’t you?”

 

“Yes,” she breathed softly.

 

“You’ve had enough to wear a saint out,” he continued kindly. “Lie down on the

lounge and I’ll bring your supper to you.”

 

“No, please! It will do me more good to go on and act as if nothing had

happened.”

 

“Well, have your own way, little wife. You’re boss now, sure enough.”

 

She drew him to the porch, and together they looked upon the June landscape

which she had regarded with such despairing eyes an hour before.

 

“Happiness never kills, after all,” she said.

 

“Shouldn’t be alive if it did,” he replied. “The birds seem to sing as if they

knew.”

 

Jane emerged from the barn door with a basket of eggs, and Alida sped away to

meet her. The first thing the child knew the arms of her mistress were about

her neck and she was kissed again and again.

 

“What did you do that for?” she asked.

 

“You’ll understand some day.”

 

“Say,” said Jane in an impulse of good will, “if you’re only half married to

Mr. Holcroft, I’d go the whole figure, ‘fi’s you. If you’d ‘a’ seen him

a-thrashin’ that scamp you’d know he’s the man to take care of you.”

 

“Yes, Jane, I know. He’ll take care of me always.”

 

The next morning Holcroft and Alida drove to town and went to the church which

she and her mother used to attend. After the service they followed the

clergyman home, where Alida again told him her story, though not without much

help from the farmer. After some kindly reproach that she had not brought her

troubles to him at first, the minister performed a ceremony which found deep

echoes in both their hearts.

 

Time and right, sensible living soon remove prejudice from the hearts of the

good and stop the mouths of the cynical and scandal-loving. Alida’s

influence, and the farmer’s broadening and more unselfish views gradually

bought him into a better understanding of his faith, and into a kinder

sympathy and charity for his neighbors than he had ever known. His relations

to the society of which he was a part became natural and friendly, and his

house a pretty and a hospitable home. Even Mrs. Watterly eventually entered

its portals. She and others were compelled to agree with Watterly that Alida

was not of the “common sort,” and that the happiest good fortune which could

befall any man had come to Holcroft when he fell in love with his wife.

 

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